The observatory

We are providing data to the SQM Network for light pollution measurements of the night sky. The respective SQM-LE sensor is mounted on our observatory roof and gets readen out every minute or so (during night). Here you find the latest graphs: loading Current SQM reading

Our observatory is located in Santa Cristina, a small town in Val Gardena, right in the center of the Dolomites (UNESCO world heritage). The telescope is located at the Hotel Interski. Our skies are pretty transparent, even if sometimes we are struggling with some light pollution coming from the many accomodations lightning around their houses. …

In autumn 2012 we decided it was time for a new telescope. After some thinking we had our requirements: biggest possible aperture, still manageable by our mount (ASA DDM85) should be possible to do both widefield and planetary imaging without big hassles visual observing should be possible (for observing evenings and such) Balancing of the …

I am trying to collect everything that might be needed for astronomy here. Feel free to drop me a message if you think there is something noteworthy to be added. Some of the files are hosted by myself, others will simply redirect to the corresponding site. Astronomy Catalogs Catalogs are used by Star Chart programs …

Our telescope is also available for rental over the web, so everyone can use it to image his desired targets. As we are right now using ASA’s software (which includes a scheduling system), we can basically set up a night’s worth of imaging time and the system works alone, including targeting, focusing and “guiding” (not …

I decided to provide some of my aquired raw data for others to try and process it. You can use and publish results as you wish, but you have to reference us as the authors of the raw data – and you can of course notify us 🙂 Free FITS RAW files Astro Photos by …

Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert II galaxy. Due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it …

NGC 2174 (also known as Monkey Head Nebula) is an H II[1] emission nebula located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175. It is thought to be located about 6,400 light-years away from Earth. The nebula may have formed through hierarchical collapse. This is the first time I …

This is a mosaic of three panels of the Veil nebula, done in summer 2014. It was a really though job, considering the bad weather we had. ANyway, each panel has a total of about 8 exposures for each LRGB channel, each of 10 minutes time. (so 16 hours of data). I had not enough …